Download A. The Nile River Valley

If you were talking about
the Nile River, what are 5
things you would describe
or say?
DO NOW
Chapter 5 Ancient Egypt and
Kush
Lesson 1 The Nile River
Where is Egypt on the map?
Egypt
What is the name of the continent
where Egypt is located?
Africa
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QLussf-QyjE (7 min)
FYI: The Nile River is the longest river in the world.
A. The Nile River Valley
1. By 5000 B.C. hunters and gatherers had
moved into the Nile River valley.
2. They settled there, farmed the land, and built
villages. These people became the earliest
Egyptians.
3. Because Egypt gets little rainfall, Egyptians
relied on the Nile River for water. They used its
water for fishing, farming, cooking, and cleaning.
The Nile
4. The Nile River flows north from the heart of
Africa to the Mediterranean Sea, about 4,000
miles long.
5. Two rivers meet to form the Nile. They are
the Blue Nile in eastern Africa and the White
Nile in central Africa.
Blue Nile
White Nile
6. The water forms rapids where the rivers
meet. These are called cataracts. Large ships
cannot sail through the cataracts.
To the south, the dangerous cataracts
blocked enemy boats. Cataracts are
waterfalls or very fast rapids in the water.
Cataracts
are
waterfalls.
The Nile
flows up
into
Egypt.
In the north, just before it
reaches the
Mediterranean Sea, the
Nile divides into many
branches, spreading out
over an area of rich soil.
This area is called a delta.
A delta is a fan-shaped
area of fertile marshland.
The delta marshes kept
enemies from sailing
into Egypt.
The Nile River Valley
Notes

1.
2.
3.
The Nile River
Longest river in the world
Begins in East Africa and flows
northward into Egypt.
Provide water, fertile soil, and
transportation for early people.
4.
5.
6.
7.
It flows through a delta.
Deposits silt
People grew crops around the Nile
River.
Papyrus was a plant used by the
Egyptians to make paper.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe2yQEGDcrI 1 min
B. Geography of Egypt
In Egypt, the Nile runs through a narrow
valley. Deserts lie on both sides of the Nile
River valley. Because the deserts were so
hot, the ancient Egyptians called them “the
Red Land.” These areas kept outside armies
away from Egypt.
The area that the river flooded on was called
the “Black Land” and the area outside of the
flood area was called the “Red Land”.
Draw the Nile River
and label the delta,
black land, and red
land.
Egyptians developed a calendar to determine when it
was going to flood.
Inundation –
celebration of the
flooding of the Nile
Emergence
Harvest
The Nile flooded between May and September of each year.
Questions
Why was the Nile River Valley important to
the development of civilization in Egypt?
 It brought water to an area that was
surrounded by deserts. By irrigating the
land, the Nile helped agriculture thrive in
Egypt.
 Why was the Nile considered a taker of
life?
 If the Nile flooded too much, people would
die and crops would be destroyed. If it did
not flood enough, crops would not grow.

Classwork
Complete workbook page 18
 Vocabulary: Nile River (characteristics
of the Nile River)

Standards for Lesson 1
6-1.2 Emergence of agriculture and the use of
irrigation
6-1.3 Using maps to locate Egypt and the Nile River
Nile River (3 min)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ss5UY2_60vc
Do Now
Imagine you are
riding down the Nile
River. Explain you
view in detail
Map Skills
Compare the two maps on page 82
 What do you notice about the two
maps?

The Nile River
The Delta
The geography of Mesopotamia did not
protect people there in the same way. The
deserts and the rivers did not keep out
invaders. Mesopotamians constantly fought
off attackers.
 Egypt rarely faced such threats, so the
Egyptian civilization grew and prospered.

Mesopotamia:
Egypt:
6. Beyond the desert to the east was the Red
Sea. These waters allowed Egyptians to trade
with others

7. Within Egypt, people used the Nile for trade
and transportation. Winds from the north
pushed sailboats south.
8. Egypt was different from Mesopotamia
because city-states of Mesopotamia would
fight each other. However, Egyptian villages
had friendly contact.
C. People of the River
1.
In Egypt, the Nile River flooded, usually in
mid-July.
Nile after a flood
2. Water came to the Nile from rain and during the
summer, the Nile spilled over its banks. When the
waters went down, they left a layer of dark, rich mud.
The land along the Nile was very fertile because of
the yearly flooding, and was called “black land.”
3. The Egyptians became successful
farmers. They planted wheat, barley, and
flax seeds. They grew enough to feed
themselves and their animals.
4. The Egyptians used irrigation when
the weather was dry. To trap floodwaters,
Egyptian farmers first dug basins, or
bowl-shaped holes, in the earth. Then
they dug canals to carry water from the
basins to the fields.
5. The Egyptians also used a shadoof, a
bucket on a long pole. It could lift water
from the river into the basins.
D. Papyrus and Hieroglyphics
1. Egyptians used papyrus - a reed plant that
grew along the shores of the Nile. They
harvested papyrus to make baskets, sandals,
and river rafts.
Ancient Egyptian
Sandals
2. The Egyptians also used papyrus for
making writing paper. Like the
Mesopotamians, Egyptians developed their
own system of writing called hieroglyphics.
3. A pictograph is a symbol representing a
concept, object, activity, place or event by
illustration: ideas are transmitted through
drawing. Pictographs are the basis of
cuneiform in Mesopotamia and hieroglyphics in
Egypt.
Egyptian Hieroglyphics
Mesopotamian Cuneiform
4. Hieroglyphics was made up of thousands of
picture and sound symbols. Some symbols
stood for objects and ideas. For example, to
communicate the idea of a boat, a scribe would
draw a tiny boat. Other symbols stood for
sounds, like the letters of our own alphabet.
5. In ancient Egypt,
few people could
read and write, but
some Egyptian men
went to special
schools to study
reading and writing.
6. They learned to become scribes, or record
keepers, for the rulers, priests, and traders.
Some hieroglyphics conveyed public
messages and scribes carved these into stone
walls and monuments. For everyday use,
scribes invented a simpler script and wrote on
papyrus.
Egyptian papyrus paper
How to Make Papyrus Paper (7 min.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCR8n7qS43w
E. Uniting Egypt
1. Skillful farming led to more food than was
needed, or a surplus. This freed some people to
work as artisans instead of farmers.
2,500 year old ancient Egyptian amulet of a
winged, scarab beetle.
2. Artisans wove cloth, made pottery, and
carved statues. They also shaped copper
into weapons and tools. Now Egyptians
had goods to trade. First, they traded
with each other. Then they traveled to
Mesopotamia to trade.
3. Irrigation systems needed to be built and
maintained. Grain had to be stored. Disputes
over land needed to be settled. Over time, a
government formed in Egypt.
Ancient Irrigation System:
4. By 4000 B.C. Egypt was made up of two
large kingdoms. Lower Egypt was in the north
in the Nile delta. Upper Egypt was in the
south along the Nile River.
5. About 3100 B.C., Narmer was king of
Upper Egypt. Narmer led his armies north
and took control of Lower Egypt.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufWe8zIM2lA (12 min)
6. Narmer’s kingdom stayed together
after his death. His family passed power
from father to son to grandson. This is a
dynasty.
7. Over time, ancient Egypt would be ruled by
30 dynasties over a period of about 2,800 years.
7. Cont’d. Historians group Egypt’s dynasties
into three main eras—the Old Kingdom, the
Middle Kingdom, and the New Kingdom. Each
kingdom had a long period of strong leadership
and safety.
Old Kingdom
. United under King Menes
Middle Kingdom
New Kingdom
. United under King Mentuhotep . United under Pharaoh Ahmose
I
. 2686 to 2181 B.C.E,
. 2055 to 1650 B.C.E.
. 1550-1070 BC
. Included the 3rd to the 6th
. Included the 11th to the 12th
dynasties
dynasty
. Included the 18th to the
20th dynasty
. Capitol was Memphis
. Capitol was Thebes
. Capitol was Thebes
. “Age of Pyramids”
. "Golden Age"
. Construction
. Stability
. "Imperial Age"
. Teamwork
. Property boundaries
. New Empire
. Egyptian Art
. Territorial expansion
. Expansion period
. Sculptures
.
. Military conquest
. Peak of power
. Prosperous
. Pharaohs Buried in hidden
. Pharaohs Buried in Pyramids tombs
. Pharaohs Buried in the Valley
of the Kings
. Pharaoh viewed as an
. Pharaoh viewed as the
inaccessible god-king who rules “shepherd of his people” with
. Pharaoh viewed not only as a
absolutely over his people.
the task to build public works
leader and ruler of an empire,
and produce for the welfare.
but also as an important figure
in religion and religious practice
FYI: The Greek historian Herodotus
called Egypt the “gift of the Nile.”
FYI:The Egyptians developed a calendar
to keep track of when the Nile would flood.
The Nile flooded between May and
September.
FYI: The Sphinx had the body of a lion and the head of a pharaoh.
END OF
Chapter 5
Lesson 1 PPT